Chiang Mai, Thailand

After hopping on to an overnight bus, Jami and I we're finally away from the crowds of Bangkok and in the mountainous city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. It was definitely a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Our first impression was that it was a more relaxed pace of life. But it could have also been that we arrived at 7am when the city was just waking up.

That morning we found a place to get breakfast, hop on the wifi, and explored the streets of Chiang Mai as we waited for our hostel to open. One of the things on our list upon arrival was to book all of our tours. We didn’t book anything ahead of time which made the selection slimmer than desired but with the help of a tour agency (there was several around the city) we were able to find the perfect three day experience. We would see the tigers up close on day one, bathe with the elephants on day two, and zip line through Chiang Mai’s mountains on day three.

The days were packed and the nights left us with exploring what the city had to offer. Densely populated with temples, street shops, and food carts, we had plenty to see and do. New Year’s Eve provided the some of the greatest memories being able to experience the floating lanterns and being able to release a couple of our own in the sky.

Timing couldn’t have been any better as there was also a festival during the days we were there bringing in more food stalls and street side shopping. We couldn’t get enough mango sticky rice and coconut ice cream.

Before leaving Chiang Mai we had to see the famous Lady Boy Cabaret at the Chiang Mai Night Market. It was a high energy show which was great after several days of non stop adventuring. Early the next morning we were on our way to the airport to start our island hopping adventure beginning in the beaches on the island of Phuket.